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FIRST ON FOX: Fairfax County officers are within the sizzling seat after the Trump Division of Homeland Safety says their sanctuary insurance policies allowed an unlawful alien to stroll free regardless of having been arrested ten occasions and having 19 legal prices, together with for malicious taking pictures and illegal wounding.
The highest Fairfax County official is disputing DHS’ characterization of it as a sanctuary county. Nonetheless, Salvadoran nationwide Jorge Armando Melendez-Gonzalez, 27, was arrested 10 occasions and has been charged with 19 completely different crimes in simply over seven years, between March 19, 2018, and July 18, 2025, in keeping with DHS.
He was lastly arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Oct. 24 after DHS mentioned officers on the Fairfax County Grownup Detention Heart declined to honor an immigration detainer it lodged towards him on July 18.
The July detainer was not the primary time Fairfax County ignored an ICE request to carry Melendez-Gonzalez. ICE additionally lodged a detainer towards him in 2023. In accordance with DHS, “Fairfax County officers refused to honor the immigration detainer and launched this harmful legal alien again into the group.”
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Jorge Armando Melendez-Gonzalez, 27, was arrested 10 occasions and has been charged with 19 completely different crimes in simply over seven years. (Fox Information; Fairfax County Police Division)
The company mentioned that Melendez-Gonzalez entered the U.S. illegally in June 2015. An immigration choose ordered his removing from the nation simply over a 12 months later in October 2016.
Regardless of this, Melendez-Gonzalez stayed within the nation for simply over ten years, racking up a protracted checklist of offenses in Virginia. He has arrests for 3 counts of malicious taking pictures, illegal wounding, use of a firearm in fee of a felony, assault and battery, assault on a member of the family, grand larceny, trespassing, possessing a false authorities identification, public intoxication, disturbing the peace and making a false assertion to a legislation enforcement officer.
He has two felony convictions for illegal wounding stemming from a 2023 taking pictures, which carry sentences of three years in confinement. Nonetheless, his sentence was suspended all the way down to a 12 months.
In accordance with an announcement by the Fairfax County Police Division, detectives arrested Melendez-Gonzalez in August 2023 in reference to a taking pictures that injured three males outdoors a enterprise in Falls Church, Virginia.
Fox Information Digital reached out to Fairfax County Commonwealth Legal professional Steve Descano, a Democrat, for the explanation for Melendez-Gonzalez’s sentence being suspended. A spokesperson for the commonwealth’s lawyer’s workplace declined to remark, referring Fox Information Digital to the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Workplace, which the spokesperson mentioned, “is answerable for dealing with ICE detainers.”
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Fairfax County, Virginia, Grownup Detention Heart allegedly ignored an ICE detainer to carry Melendez-Gonzalez. (Fairfax County)
Allyson Conroy, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s workplace, which runs the Fairfax County Grownup Detention Heart, advised Fox Information Digital that “we didn’t have a judicial warrant on file from ICE for Jorge Armando Melendez-Gonzalez for both date, Aug. 28, 2023, nor for July 18 of this 12 months.”
Conroy mentioned that “as such, the Sheriff’s Workplace couldn’t keep custody over Mr. Melendez-Gonzalez.”
Concerning the suspension of Melendez-Gonalez’s sentence, Conroy mentioned that call “is within the discretion of the choose or the assigned Commonwealth’s Legal professional,” including, “It is best to contact these people for additional info.”
Fox Information Digital additionally reached out to representatives for Fairfax County concerning the Fairfax County Circuit Courtroom’s determination however didn’t instantly obtain a response.
Fairfax County Chairman Jeffrey McKay, additionally a Democrat, responded to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark by saying, “Fairfax County, via the Board of Supervisors, doesn’t management or make selections concerning ICE detainers or judicial sentencing; these tasks fall to the Sheriff and the courts, respectively.”
He mentioned that Fairfax County “doesn’t take into account itself a sanctuary jurisdiction and continues to observe all relevant federal and state legal guidelines.”
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Steve Descano , Commonwealths Legal professional-elect, Fairfax County, Virginia speaks at an occasion on the Heart for American Progress about Virginias Newly Elected Progressive Prosecutors on Tuesday, December 17, 2019. (Getty Photos)
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, nonetheless, positioned the blame squarely on the county’s sanctuary insurance policies.
“These sanctuary insurance policies make Virginians much less secure,” McLaughlin advised Fox Information Digital.
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“Fairfax County refused to honor two ICE arrest detainers and selected to launch this legal again onto Virginia’s streets. Virginia sanctuary politicians protected this legal unlawful alien and allowed him to terrorize Americans,” she added.
“Due to the courageous women and men of ICE legislation enforcement, this serial violent legal with 10 earlier arrests, is now off of Virginia’s streets,” mentioned McLaughlin.
